The increasing number of stopped trains blocking State Route 19 in Oak Harbor is raising safety issues again.

Village resident Terry McGlothlin took her concerns to village council after a Norfolk Southern train recently came to a halt for nearly four hours on an early October morning.

“Unfortunately, they have been stopped hours at a time here lately,” Mayor Bill Eberle said of the unscheduled stops that cause havoc on the state highway in the town’s northern section.

Councilwoman Donna Wendt-Elliot agreed the stops were unnerving for both drivers and businesses in the area. “Friday was terrible,” she said during the Oct. 20 meeting, recalling a recent incident. “It was an hour and half wait.”

A divided Ohio Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal filed by a Clay Township man who’s been fighting a civil protection order filed against him by a neighbor.

Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor was joined by justices Paul Pfeifer, Terrence O’Donnell and Judith Lanzinger in dismissing the case as having been “improvidently certified.”

Justices Sharon Kennedy, Judith French and William O’Neill dissented.

The case came to the court last year after Tony Simon, of N. Genoa-Clay Center Road, appealed a decision by the Ottawa County Common Pleas Court in 2011 to grant a request by Dorothy Fondessy for a protection order. The order is in effect for five years and directs Simon to stay at least 25 feet away from Fondessy and her husband, Wayne.

The Sixth District Court of Appeals in April 2013 upheld the common pleas court decision but agreed with a motion by Simon’s attorney to let the Supreme Court review its decision because there have been several conflicting decisions in other appellate courts on when protection orders should be issued.

Meetings to update producers and landowners in Sandusky County on the provisions of the 2014 Farm Bill have been scheduled for November and December,

Todd Warner, executive director of the county’s Farm Service Agency office, said the sessions will focus on major reforms in the bill.

“Essentially the farm bill was completely revamped,” Warner said. “The 2008 Farm Bill provided direct payments, which were guaranteed payments for producers no matter what the market price for corn, soybeans and wheat. Those have been eliminated.”

Meetings will be held at the Vanguard Career and Technology Center’s Carr Lecture Lab, 1306 Cedar Street, Fremont, on Nov. 3, 5, 25 and Dec. 1 and 4. Sessions will be held from 9-11 a.m., 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. each day.

Two Saturday sessions are scheduled for Nov. 22 and Dec. 6 from 9-11 a.m. at the Sandusky County Agriculture Service Center in the large conference room, 2000 Countryside Dr., Fremont.

A Willard, O. man is close to becoming the next fiscal officer in the Village of Oak Harbor.

Village council recently gave Mayor Bill Eberle the authority to negotiate a contract with Henry Jarrett, Jr., who currently is employed part-time as the Village of Shiloh’s fiscal clerk. Shiloh is located in Richland County near Mansfield. According to his resume, Jarrett has served as clerk of the town of about 650 people since 2011. Prior to that, he worked in various accounting jobs, including his own agency.

The contract is expected to be up for review when council meets in regular session Nov. 3 at the village hall.

Jarrett is the prime candidate gleaned from a pool of 21 applicants. Council held a special meeting Oct. 14 to conduct interviews with five of those candidates.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources is reporting survey results from this year show an average walleye hatch and good perch hatch.

The bottom trawl survey of Ohio’s waters of the lake’s western basin indicates this year’s walleye hatch is similar to the average hatches of 2001, 2007 and 2010. The trawls caught about 20 walleye per hectare (about 2.5 acres) this year, compared to the long-term average of 26 walleye per hectare, and the best since 2007.

“Based upon the results from the August trawl survey, it appears that the 2014 hatch was near average and should contribute to the fishery in future years,” the department’s division of wildlife says in a press release.